You know you’ve been dreaming when “vast bowls of Chichester soup” is the phrase stuck in your head when you wake up. But I was gorked on drugs after yesterday’s oh-so-fun colonoscopy. Fentanyl does weird things.
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
Immigrants do work that might not otherwise get done – bolstering the US economy
Although Congress is failing to pass laws to restrict the number of migrants arriving in the U.S., a majority of Americans – about 6 in 10 – believe there’s an immigration crisis along the Mexico-U.S. border. Politicians who want fewer people to move here often cast those arriving without prior authorization as a burden on the economy.
As an economist who has researched immigration and employment, I’m confident that economic trends and research findings contradict those arguments.
Crypto Political Group Fairshake Targets California Senate Candidate Katie Porter
Tesla worker killed in fiery crash may be first ‘Full Self-Driving’ fatality
Evidence suggests the advanced driver-assistance system was engaged during a fatal crash that killed recruiter Hans von Ohain in 2022.
In inflation-torn Argentina, locals use ‘crypto caves’ — and avoid Bitcoin
Argentines are using secret peer-to-peer crypto exchanges to buy U.S. dollar stablecoins as inflation continues to soar.
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
US CDC plans to drop five-day COVID isolation guidelines
Politics:
Republicans Are No Longer a Political Party
When historians chronicle the end of the Grand Old Party, they may mark 2024 as the turning point. Something called the Republican Party will surely exist for years to come, like a legacy brand subsumed by a competitor, but it appears to be coming to its end as a functional party. Instead, the Republican Party has become just another subsidiary of Donald Trump Inc.
Yesterday, Trump announced his effective takeover of the Republican National Committee, endorsing Michael Whatley, the chair of the North Carolina GOP, as chair; his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as co-chair; and one of his top campaign advisers, Chris LaCivita, as chief operating officer. LaCivita will reportedly also remain with the Trump presidential campaign, splitting time. The current chair of the party, Ronna McDaniel, is stepping down because of pressure from Trump.
The pedant in me says rednecks is one word, not two.
Kentucky State Representative Claims Her White Father Was a Slave
Russia Puts Estonia’s Leader on a Wanted List
Estonia’s prime minister has been put on a wanted list in Russia because of her efforts to remove Soviet-era World War II monuments in the Baltic nation, officials said Tuesday as tensions between Russia and the West soar amid the war in Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1757485555745513586?s=20
France Uncovers Vast Russian Disinformation Campaign
Russia has been at the forefront of internet disinformation techniques at least since 2014, when it pioneered the use of bot farms to spread fake news about its invasion of Crimea. According to French authorities, the Kremlin is at it again.
On February 12th Viginum, the French foreign-disinformation watchdog, announced it had detected preparations for a large disinformation campaign in France, Germany, Poland and other European countries, tied in part to the second anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the elections to the European Parliament in June.
Viginum said it had uncovered a Russian network of 193 websites which it codenames ‘Portal Kombat.’
https://twitter.com/MarkJacob16/status/1757217920533340475
https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1757631390219198934
Journalist uncovers sources of well-funded campaign to spread deceit about offshore wind energy
Trump Has Completely Remade the Republican Party
The party’s trajectory since the insurrection is stark. In the days after January 6, 2021, Trump was deemed totally toxic. Business groups pledged to deny funds to any Republican candidate who refused to accept the election result. But since then, Liz Cheney was purged from her leadership post for continuing to maintain that the insurrection was wrong, then was successfully targeted in a primary. Mike Pence, once the ultimate Republican hyperpartisan, became loathed solely because he refused to help steal the election. The House replaced its Speaker with one of the legal architects of Trump’s coup attempt.
If Trump returns to office, he won’t literally need allies who say he won in 2020. What he will need is for the entire party to understand that the price of disobedience of any of his whims, however deranged or illegal it may be, is political death.
https://twitter.com/mluckovichajc/status/1757477021330898997
Stating the obvious, Republicans Use Bigoted Attacks Against Political Foes
The racist discourse by Republican members of Congress, both in casual comments and in official statements, has become so commonplace that it now often slips by without any real condemnation from the GOP. Democrats frequently call for apologies but no longer expect any response, and those futile denunciations quickly disappear into a morass of polarized content on social media.
The pattern is playing out as the Republican Party once again coalesces behind former President Donald Trump, who routinely made bigoted statements during his first campaign for the White House and his presidency. His approach has encouraged some Republicans to freely use rhetoric that denigrates people based on ethnicity, religion or nationality.
https://twitter.com/RyanShead/status/1757486577931235462
Israeli minister blocking flour Bibi promised Biden would be allowed into Gaza
https://twitter.com/MarkJacob16/status/1757483095752606189
Serendipity:
Why is free time still so elusive?
https://twitter.com/MikeOkuda/status/1757308552446939513
Want a free Hive account? Join Hive using my referral link.